K12 Fellowship FAQs

Questions? The following are the most frequently asked questions about the K12 Fellowship. As always, if you have further questions, don't hesitate to get in touch.

+ What is the curriculum for K12 Fellowship?

The LEANLAB K12 fellowship is a mixture of immersive, community experience, research-based curriculum, one-on-one tactical coaching, and mentorship. Over the span of four months, fellows complete a two-and-a-half week residency and two four-day modules. Using Village Capital’s VIRAL Framework as a curriculum tool, we help founders identify their ventures’ maturity level and plan concrete steps to move their company from concept to a sustainable enterprise.

Residency and Module I: A two-and-a-half week full-time experience on-the-ground in Kansas City, MO. Fellows will meet their users, potential customers, and beta-site partners. During the residency, the fellows learn the unique context of Kansas City that will influence their ventures’ development and success in the KC region. Fellows spend their first week meeting key stakeholders in the Kansas City community and learning the local landscape. They also complete the first Village Capital module, assessing their current venture’s stage and planning goals and milestones. They spend the remaining ten days gaining as much traction on their ventures’ development as possible, with the assistance of personalized coaching and mentorship.

Module II: A four-day module in October, Module II focuses on re-engaging with key Kansas City customers, debriefing with local beta-site partners, assessing progress on their Village Capital aligned goals and milestone plans, and receive input from industry experts.

Module III: The final module focuses on feedback from beta-site partners and reserves time for fellows to reflect on their goal and milestone progress, while planning next steps to maximize Kansas City impact. This module culminates with LaunchED Day, a large scale event that showcases our K12 fellows’ innovations.

Intersessions: Between the residency and modules, fellows are expected to work full-time toward their venture. Remote coaching and support is provided on a bi-weekly basis. Intersessions should be leveraged by fellows to make progress toward specific goals in their milestone plans.

+ What costs are covered for the visits – travel, hotel etc.?

All fellows receive a $10,000 stipend to cover your travel and to support pilot testing. Lodging accommodations are provided. We typically host fellows at a rental property/Airbnb to give them an opportunity to build fellowship and facilitate strong relationships among founders.

+ What are the beta-partnership sites?

Beta-partnership sites are carefully sourced as a result of our listening tour at the beginning of each calendar year. We spend three months interviewing parents, students, teachers and administrators distilling the most pressing needs in our community. Beta sites are schools that are engaged in partnership with LEANLAB for the purpose of testing meaningful and promising innovations that align to the problems sourced in those conversations. The schools are representative of the larger public school needs of the region, and are both traditional public and public charter schools. All beta-site partners in 2018 are within the K12 range.

+ Is there any initial investment or equity expected?

We do not currently take any equity from the fellows who complete our program.

+ What makes the K12 Fellowship different from other accelerator programs?

We believe the most transformational education innovations are born when they are developed in true partnership with those most impacted by education--parents, students, administrators, and teachers. We prioritize authentic feedback from these stakeholders and our fellows are expected to iterate and co-design their solutions in response to our community's needs.

+ Do I need to stay in Kansas City?

Because of our commitment to community, we insist that all applicants commit to attending all scheduled programming on the dates outlined. Additionally, we suggest that teams from outside of Kansas City book additional time on the back end of working modules to pursue local partnership and sales opportunities.

Application Opens: May 1

Application Deadline: June 10

Residency Program (Module I): August 7 - 24

Module II: October 4 - 7

Module III: November 5 - 8

LaunchED Day Pitch Event: November 8

+ What will I get out of the K12 Fellowship?

Training and consultancies on all aspects of building a sustainable and impactful venture in education.

A $10,000 stipend to cover your travel and to support pilot testing.

Access to a world class mentorship network.

Immersion into beta-site partners and a community of support.

Meals and accomodations in Kansas City for in-person modules.

The opportunity to receive up to $25,000 in additional seed funding.

Access to mentorship from regional and national entrepreneurship and education leaders.